Estrellas de Ninjas

So the other day, I read an interesting article about a little town (so aptly named Littleton) in Colorado and an incident that occurred at their local high school, an incident which has spurred a national debate and multiple studies into the psyches of young kids throughout the country. In other words, it changed the world.

Of course I’m talking about Columbine here. And why I decide to touch on subject that really is a decade old (as of today, actually) is because the article made some interesting points. First of all, it aimed to debunk all the myths that had seemingly become common knowledge. The “Trench Coat Mafia,” the supposed ‘gang’ of misfits and disaffected videogamers which the two gunmen were a part of, didn’t exist. Contrary to popular belief, the two shooters had not been bullied to the point where they would get depressed and suicidal and to the point where they wished to lash back violently. In fact, rather, they were the ones who did the bullying. And that story about the girl who was shot because she said “yes” when asked if she believed in God? Didn’t happen.

And if you’re wondering why I decide to bring this up, years later and especially now that it has really disappeared from the public’s mind, it’s that this particular tragedy affected me personally. See, the moment this occurred, a whole new wave of paranoia and fear swept over the nation’s schools and suddenly anyone between the age of 12 and17 were potential suicidal murderers, prepared to wreak havoc on school grounds. Well, not anyone. Just those who played video games all the time and didn’t really fit in. Pretty much me and my friends in 8th grade. It was played out over the media that it was video games to blame for the incident, it was the fact that these kids were bullied, it’s the fact that these kids were loners. Keep on eye on them! Be nice to them! They’re the dangerous ones! And the moment they give you a dirty look, alert the authorities!

And of course, people did get fucking scared.

One year later takes us to this Catholic school in a suburb somewhere east of the San Francisco Bay. Some kid in the 8th grade class, who really was classified as a “misfit” (actually I recall a friend of mine telling me back in 8th grade to not worry, I’ll be popular in high school) decides to bring some pieces of metal shaped in the form of stars to school. Ninja stars, if you will (but really, they were from Mexico. So were they really…minja stars?) To put a long story short, this seemingly disaffected misfit (who really wouldn’t try to hurt anyone. He was just a geek who liked playing Final Fantasy) made a lot of kids in his class feel “threatened,” and with Columbine fresh on everyone’s minds, authorities were alerted.

They called me into the office. They told me to bring my backpack so they could search it. There was a chubby police officer there waiting with his arms crossed. And they searched my bag and found those estrellas de ninjas. The police officer carefully dropped them into a bag marked “evidence.”

In a perfect world, they told me, things could go back to normal. But the world is a cold, cold place, and they told me not to come back to school. It was a month and a half before the end of 8th grade, I was accepted to the local Catholic High School too, I was the top of my class. And they told me they didn’t want to see me back on the property, else police action will be taken. My acceptance to the high school I had been accepted into had been retracted. I never saw a lot of my friends again.

But at least I got an extra long summer!

As a 13 year old, who wouldn’t have been sorta traumatized by the whole situation? I’ve since gotten over the whole ordeal, but today I’m convinced that if the whole country hadn’t been sucked into this culture of fear and paranoia, the action taken on me wouldn’t have been so harsh and I probably would have been able to finish 8th grade. I was a victim of mass media, and unfortunately at my particular school, an example had to be made.

And to hear 10 years later that perhaps the media blew up the story and made false assumptions about the types of people these sick gunmen were, I can't help but wonder what the fuck would have happened had I not been tagged by the authorities as a "threatening and dangerous loser."


It’s been years since I’ve watched Bowling For Columbine. I don’t entirely remember everything about the movie, and I really think it was more about gun control than anything. M’eh.

And so, since I’ve made the promise to post pictures of the Windy City on here for all those who read my blog and are living out their travel dreams vicariously through me, my next set of pics come from the Hancock building, one of the two (though I think lesser known-the other is the Sears Tower, of course) towers that define the Chicago skyline. Here’s a pic of it for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s the black tower in the distance.

And here it is from below:

So in regular tourist trap fashion, next to the shop that sells the obligatory postcards, t-shirts, and scale models, there’s a special elevator on the bottom floor that will take you all the way up to the observatory on the 95th floor. And also in regular tourist trap fashion, it’ll cost you a cool $15 to ride it.

Being the smart-with-money (read: cheap) guy that I am, I knew there had to be another way up to avoid paying that price. It’s a freakin office building, there’s gotta be other elevators I could ride up. And I did find em. I also embarrassed myself by jumping into an elevator but got totally rejected because I needed a key-card to activate the damn thing. I got lucky on the next elevator I jumped into though:

Ha. So apparently at the top of the Hancock building, there’s a lounge and restaurant which has all the views you would be getting from the observatory anyway…but they’ll serve you food and drinks too! And so, instead of paying $15 for an elevator ticket ride up to the observatory, I paid $9 for a beer at the lounge, and still got the same view. Take that, the system!
The Sears Tower in the distance
The Navy Pier, I talked about it earlier
The Lake Michigan shoreline


There’s something very SimCity-esque about these views. I like it. But it’s also an indication of how flat this whole state seems to be. I kinda miss having hills and mountains.

You see that there? That’s what’s west of Chicago. If you look real closely, you can almost see California.

"I can't finish that. I'm not American"
-OO